A recent very significant advance in the field of heating, melting and refining material is the submerged melting and refining process disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,586--Masterson et al. This process is directed to heating certain molten material, e.g. non-ferrous material such as copper, and optionally melting said material, or to refining copper, by the submerged injection into the material of oxygen and a fluid fuel wherein the fuel is injected in much higher stoichiometric amounts than in conventional submerged injection processes, and wherein fuel serves to form a shroud around the injected oxygen. Optionally an inert gas such as nitrogen is employed such as in a process step when heating is not necessary. One such process step is degassing wherein the molten bath is stirred with an inert gas.
When the refining gases are employed in the aforesaid submerged melting and refining process, the tuyere wear rate limits the life of the tuyere and the surrounding refractory. It is desirable, therefore, to have a tuyere useful with the submerged melting and refining process which exhibits a decreased wear rate over heretofore available tuyeres.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a tuyere assembly useful with the submerged melting and refining process which exhibits a decreased wear rate over heretofore available tuyeres.
It is another object of this invention to provide a method for positioning a tuyere within a vessel so as to extend the life of the tuyere.